AIRBUS unveiled an incredible model for a passenger jet that features beds for Economy-class flyers and futuristic virtual windows.
The blended-wing Maveric is still undergoing safety trials, but aircraft fans are already imagining what the passenger experience might be like onboard.
Measuring just 6.5ft long and 7.5ft wide, the sleek unmanned jet doesn’t look like an average airplane.
The project, called Maveric (Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls), is a small-scale remote-controlled aircraft.
The blended-wing body means the aircraft’s fuselage is attached to the wing, with the cabin integrated into the middle.
The design has more interior space compared to the long thin tubes travellers are used to flying on, so the passenger experience would be entirely different.
Similar to the Maveric, KLM, and TUDelft revealed their own blended-wing aircraft concept—the Flying-V.
The jet also includes an oval-shaped cabin area, instead of the standard cylinder, which would offer a range of seating options.
These would include lounge chairs, group seating, individual seats, and even collapsible beds.
Some of the design concepts created at TUDelft have appeared on the Crystal Cabin Awards shortlist.
These include a proposal for nested seating, cleverly suspended from the ceiling of the aircraft.
The hanging seats would be adjustable, allowing passengers to comfortably switch positions and increase recline without disturbing other flyers.
Another seating proposal that works especially well for Economy class travellers is the berth-economy seat combination.
This would give passengers lean seats to sit on for take-off and landing which can then fold up – allowing flyers to sleep horizontally.
But this isn’t the only wow factor of the aircraft that has sent jet-lovers into a frenzy.
There has been speculation over whether the futuristic jet would have real windows or virtual windows.
Virtual windows would see images projected onto the fuselage of the outside, in the spaces where regular windows would be placed.
Airbus’s mock-ups of the Maveric interior show holographic windows beside the seating area that display realistic images of clouds and the open sky.
Using virtual windows is a possibility, but they have been known to cause motion sickness.
The images that could be shown on the digital windows will have to be carefully timed to coincide with the motion that the human body feels while flying – to avoid making passengers dizzy.
If the projection displayed of the outside is stable, and the body is shaking from turbulence, then this could cause things to get messy on board.
The Maveric was first publicly unveiled at the Singapore Air Show in 2020 but was launched in 2017.
It first took to the skies in a demo flight in June 2019 at an undisclosed location in France and has been undergoing flight tests ever since.
Not only is the experimental aircraft a technological masterpiece, but its creator Airbus claims that this design can also reduce up to 20 per cent of fuel.
It comes after Nasa unveiled an experimental aircraft that has no front window for pilots to see ahead.
Another incredible plane with just one huge circular wing would allow for tiny runways, less fuel, and smooth landings.
And a supersonic plane that promises to be the next generation of commercial travel could carry 300 passengers in ultra-lux flights.
